Since the original Scope company Creamware ceased in 2006 much of their business was picked up and continued in 2007 when Sonic Core purchased certain Creamware assets and intellectual property.  Then in 2009 Sonic Core released the XITE-1.  Subsequent releases of Scope were compatible with the PCI cards (enabling them to run on later 64 bit versions of Windows) but Sonic Core did not support the old PCI cards themselves as their resources were all rightly focused on the newer and more powerful XITE-1 platform.  As Scope updates still allowed PCI cards to be used way beyond their expected lifespan (many users report over 20 years of solid use) there became the issue of how to get a card fixed in those rare cases that they stopped working.  The issues were mostly just standard electronic parts such as capacitors wearing out or solder joint failure.  Easy to fix by an electronics professional or hobbyist, but not so easy for musicians and producers who had never touched a soldering iron.  Intermittently some fixes were privately arranged on PlanetZ but a solid one shop stop has never really been established.  That may change now as Dynamixii has offered some light at the end of the PCI tunnel.

Dante: How did you get into electronics enough to be able to repair Scope boards ?

Dynamixii: To keep my studio in working order I had to maintain all of my analog synths and computers which indirectly taught me a few things about troubleshooting faults. I had a close friend, Preston Smith that was a software programmer and electrical engineer who had taught me electronics earlier on.

Dante:  Was that recently during the pandemic ?

Dynamixii: No, that was in the 80's. I did repairs for close friends and other music artists in my generation.  A few years after Preston had passed on, I met Brad Holland from Isla Instruments, who I had worked for helping him build Kordbots and replacing SMD LED components under a microscope on PCB boards (which were about the size of a grain of couscous).  I had also helped place SMD components on the prototype boards and did through hole soldering of the connectors and switches during the development phase for the S2400. While working there I began gearing my self up to do synth more repair and now have a business where I service and replace failed components on vintage synths, Sonic Core audio cards, and drum machines.

Dante:  So what types of faults would you be able to fix with the Scope PCI cards ?
 

Dynamixii:  The service I offer is re-capping, which is replacing the capacitors which are the primary thing that fails after years of use